Apparatus for descaling and coating wire



March 8, 1955 G. w. BELL APPARATUS FOR DESCALING AND comma WIRE Filed Jan. 9, 1952 nited States Patent Patented Mar. 8, 1955 APPARATUS FOR DESCALING AND COATING GeorgdWi Bell, Sterling, lll., asslgnor to Northwestern selelim 831g Wire Company, Sterling, ill, a corporation o metal articles such as wire, rods,- sheets and the like.

Wire, and other elongated metal articles as received from a rolling mill invariably contain surface deposits of tightly adhering scale. Unless the scale is removed from the articles prior to passage into subsequent metal working equipment such as wire drawing dies, the hard, brittle scale deposit abrades the dies thereby substantially decreasing the useful life of the dies.

Probably the most common method of removing scale from metal objects consists in passing the ob ects through a pickling bath containing strong acids. Pickling baths, however, have decided disadvantages in that they present definite prqblems of fume removal and waste acid disposal. It is generally recognized that the elim nation of acid pickling baths .in the treatment of steel wire would be definitely desirable, if some equivalent means could be provided for removing the scale.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanical means for descaling an elongated metal article without the use of acid pickling solutions.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide means for removing scale from a wire, and applying an adherent film of lubricant to the wire prior to passage of the wire through drawing dies.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved metal treating apparatus including a stage where scale is liberated from the surface of the article being treated, and stages in which the scalefree article is treated with lime and a powdered lubricant.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved-method for cleansing wire and other netal articles to provide thereon a clean, lubricated surace. Y

The assembly of the present invention includes a ro-' tating drum through which the wire or other article to be descaled and lubricated may be continuously passed.

The drum is preferablydivided into three chambers or compartments, in the first of which the wire is subjected to the tumbling action of abrading elements, such as hard, metallic balls which rub the wire clean of adhering scale deposits. In the second stage, the wire is treated with any agitated supply of powdered lime preparatory to a treatment in a thirdstage in which a lubricant such as soap powder is applied to the wire. I have found that by treating the wire immediately after its descaling with powdered lime, the subsequently applied powdered soap adheres far better to the surface of the wire than if the application of lime were eliminated. As a result, the wire leaving the rotating drurn'has a relatively smooth, adherent coating of soap which greatly facilitates a subsequent wire drawing operation and materially increases the useful life of the drawing dies.

Other objects and features of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the follow: ing description of the attached sheet of drawings, which, by way of preferred embodiment illustrate an apparatus which can be employed in the practice of the present invention.

In the drawings: Figure l is a schematic view, with parts in elevation of the descaling assembly of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view, with parts in elevation of the interior of the rotating drum illustrated in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along. the line III-III of Figure 2.

As shown on the drawings:

In Figure 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a wire as received from a.rolling mill and having a surface coating of scale rigidly adhering thereto. Prior to treatment of the scale-covered wire in the rotating drum of the present invention, the wire is flexed to break up dense scale formations by passing the wire over a plurality of pulleys. in Figure 1, there is illustrated a pair of pulleys 11 and 12 having their axes in a generally vertical direction, the axes of the pulleys 11 and 12 being spaced from each other so that the wire 10 undergoes considerable flexing in passage from the pulley around the pulley 12. Next, the wire 1d is trained successively over a plurality of pulleys 13, 1d, 15, 16, and 17 whose axes are substantially horizontal, the pulleys 13 thru 17 being disposed in a staggered arrangement so that as the wire passes from one pulley to the next succeeding pulley, the rapid change of direction and resulting sharp flexing which occurs in bending the wire around the peripheries of the pulleys causes scale formations to be loosened or broken 011. After passage of the wire about the periphery of the pulley 17, the wire passes about a pulley 18 having a generally vertical axis and is then introduced into a rotary drtun, generally indicated at numeral 20. As seen in Figure 1, the rotating drum 20 is 'journaled for rotation within a pair of spaced bearing support members 21 and 22. One end of the drum 20 is provided with a sprocket 23 having a drive chain 24in engagement therewith to rotate the drum 2d at a suitable angular velocity. The wire 10, after leaving the drum, is pulled through a drawing die 25 and coiled about a driven spool 26 which tensions the wire 10 during its passage thru the drum.

The interior of the rotating drum 20 is best illustrated in the cross-sectional view of Figure 2. As seen in this figure, the cylinder 20 consists of a plurality of axially aligned flanged cylinders 30, 31 and 32 in end-to-end relationship, the cylinder 30 having an annular end flange portion 33, with similar annular flange portions 34 and 35 being provided on the cylinder 31. The cylinder 32 has an annular flange portion 36 abutting the flange portion 35. A pair of baffles 38 and 39 have their peripheral edges held firmly between the flanges 33 and 34 by means .of a plurality of bolts 40, peripherally spaced. The baflles 33 and 39 are outwardly flared centrally as indicated at d1 and '42 as well as being centrally apertured to permit passage of the wire 10 therethrough. The inclinations of the bafiles 41 and 42 into the chambers defined by the three cylinders 30, 31 and 32 prevent accumulation of the materials contained in the various compartments at the ends of the cylinders, as will hereinafter be explained.

The forward end of the cylinder 30 is also provided with an end plate 414 having a central aperture formed therein to permit passage of the wire 10 through the drum. An outwardly flared and centrally apertured baflle 45 is also provided at the forward end of the drum to prevent a plurality of steel balls 46 contained in the cylinder 30 from accumulating at the inlet end of the drum, and thereby prevent binding.

The steel balls 46 are representative of abrading elements which, upon tumbling by rotation of the drum 20 effectively dislodge remaining scale from the wire as it is received from the pulley 18. To permit the dislodged scale to' be continuously removed, a portion of the cyl-' inder 30 is perforated as indicated at 47 with apertures having a smaller dimension than the diameter of the balls 36. Thus, upon continued rotation of the drum 20, scale which is wiped from the wire by the tumbling action of the balls 46 sifts through the apertures 47 and may be collected in a collecting trough.

After removal of the scale by the action of the tumbling abrading elements, the wire 10 passes into the centrally disposed chamber or compartment defined by the cylinder 31. This cylinder 31 contains a supply of powdered lime 49 which readily adheres to the smoothsurfaced wire leaving the tumbling chamber. The outwardly flared portion 42 of the baffle 39 as well as a similarly outwardly flared portion 50 on a bafile 51 prevent the powdered lime 49 from accumulating at the pickling bath follow inlet and outlet of the cylinder 31. A plurality of circumter'entially aced agitator elements 53 are secured to the inner w of the cylinder 31 to lgeep the supply of lime 49 in a constantly agitated condition.

A relatively thin film of hme adheres to the wire as it asses through the agitated supply of lime-49, and the us lime coated wire next passes into the hollow cylinder 32 in which a lubricant is applied to the lime treated surface. The cylinder 32 has its inner end pro-' vided with an outwardly flared bame 54 and its outer end has a similar bafile 55. The baffles 54 and 51 are contained between the annular peripheral flanges 35 and 36 and are held in fixed relation by means of the bolts 40. The lubricating chamber defined by the cylinder 32 contains a supply of powdered lubricant'such as powdered soap 56, as well as circumferentially spaced agitators 57. The powdered soap 56 readily adheres to the lime coated wire and forms a more or less continuous film of soap over the wire. The soap coated wire then leaves the rotating drum through a centrally apertured end plate 60 secured to the cylinder 32 and then may be to the other metal working apparatus such as drawing dies, cutters, and the like.

While not shown in the drawings, it will be appreciated that each of the compartments making up the rotary drum 20 may be provided with access doors to replenish the supplies of powdered lime and powdered soap contained in the lime and lubricating compartit will be appreciated that the present invention provides a simple, yet highly effective mechanical system for the removal of scale and for the lubrication of metal articles prior to subsequent metal working operations. The cleaning and lubricating operations can be carried out at high speeds, considerably higher than those involved in passing a wire through a picklin bath followed by separate application of a lubricant. or example, a steel wire having a diameter of 0.207 inch was passed through a rotating drum such as described, at a speed of 2700 to 2800 ee t per minute while achieving efiective' cleaning and lubrtcatmg. The size of the balls was about 1%" in diameter. This range of is significantly higher than those speeds attainable when drawin a similar wire throughan acid by a'separate stage of lubricant ments, ely

From e foregoing,

application.

t will be understood that various modifications and variations may be efiected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.

1 claim as my invention:

1. A descaling assembly comprising a rotary drum,

means dividing said drum into a plurality of chambers including a tumbling chamber, a lime applicator chamber, and a lubricant applicator chamber, means for passing an article to be descaled successively through said tumbling chamber, said lime applicator chamber, and said lubricant applying chamber, a plurality of hard metallic balls in said tumbling chamber for abrading said article upon rotation of said drum, and agitator elements in said lubricant applying chamber for agitating lubricant disposed in said chamber.

2. A descaling assembly comprising a rotary drum, spaced partitions in said drum rvtding said drum into tumbling compartment, a 3Ild a soap applicator compartment, inlet and outlet descaled through 4 compartments, said drum guiding an article to, be descaled successively througheach of said compartments, and said partitions hav' centrally apertured flared portions extending into compartments.

3. A descaling assembly comprising a rotary drum, spaced partitions in said drum dividing said drum into a plurality of axially spaced compartments, including a lime applicator compartment,

means at opposed ends of said article to be descaled successively through said tum ling compartment, said lime applicator compartment, and said soap applicator compartment, a plurality of hard metallic balls disposed in said tumbling compartment, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced agitator elements in both said lime applicator compartment and said soap applicator compartment.

4. A descaling apparatuscomprising a rotary drum having an inlet and outlet for guiding an article to be said drum, partitions dividing said drum into a plurality of axially spaced compartments including a tumbling compartment at the inlet, end of said drum, .said drum having a plurality of apertures therein at said tumbling compartment for removing scale liberated from said article during passage of said article through said tumbling compartment, and a plurality of relatively hard metallic balls of a diameter greater than the smallest dimension of said apertures disposed in said tumbling compartment.

5. A descaling assembly for wire and the like comprising a rotary drum, a partition in said drum dividing said drum into a plurality of axially spaced compartments including an abrading compartment and a lime applicator compartment, said drum having inlet and outlet means at opposite ends thereof and said partition havin an apertured portion in alignment with said inlet an outlet means and leading from one compartment to the other for guiding the wire to be descaled successively through each of said compartments, abrading means in said abrading compartment for abrading the wire as it travels therethrough, and a plurality of agitator elements extending inwardly from the wall of said lime applicator compartment for agitating and cascading lime onto the abraded wire.

drum for guidin an References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

